With only five minutes to go before the union's deadline to decertify last Thursday — a move that might have obliterated the NFL as we know it today — a player walked into the negotiating room that included commissioner Roger Goodell, league attorney Jeff Pash, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and union president Kevin Mawae and declared: "We're done! We're decertifying."

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At that point the aforementioned player — whose name is being withheld because of the sensitivity of ongoing negotiations — walked into the room upstairs, tapped Mawae on the shoulder and made a quick hand-across-the-throat gesture while making his decertification declaration.

According to sources, the union had a member of its legal team on the phone with the clerk of the court in Minneapolis, where U.S. District Judge David Doty presides over the case. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed, and the league agreed to the first of two extensions.

Smell that? That's fear, fear that a federal judge may not see things the way the owners want us to see them. Sense that? The fact that for once, the players have leverage on their side. All those reports throughout the season of teams voting to decertify have finally paid off, with a nuclear option that the league may not be willing to face. And if they're not, the only remaining option is to get a deal done.